July 2022 Dear Friends, the July bulleting focuses on ongoing critical reflections around the 10th anniversary of Marikana, the struggles for a Free internet, and the work of the Monitoring School. All these struggles take place despite the dark imperilled by the failure of the state to provide electricity for all. The pressure point was […]
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Who We Are
Bench Marks Foundation was founded by the Churches in 2001 to monitor all multinational companies in South Africa and the region, with a regional focus on South African companies’ expansion into Africa. It has done work on South African supermarkets in Africa, on whether they are purely extractive or contribute to host countries economic development. It has a big focus on mining and extractive both in South Africa and in Botswana, Zambia and the DRC, as well as Malawi. This focus has also led to focus on the relationship between banks investment policies and mining and other sectors of the economy.
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Bench Marks Foundation has worked with a number of international NGO’s on human rights due diligence and of the biggest buyers of platinum and international companies supply chain responsibilities encompassing human rights and the environment. With a focus on South African Companies expanding into the rest of Africa.
Bench Marks Foundation works with an international coalition of faith-based organizations from around the world that developed the Principles for Global Corporate Responsibility-Bench Marks for Measuring Business Performance, that has been hailed as one of four leading instruments that set benchmarks for social responsibility through the lens of corporate social responsibility covering all sectors of the economy
Mission
To be on every company’s agenda and to be a household name
Vision
Bench Marks Foundation is committed to providing leadership and advocacy on bench marking of good corporate governance, ethical and socially responsible investment as well as linking people and institutions committed to these ideals
Values
Pro poor and on the side of those suffering – an option and solidarity for the poor, speaking truth to power, to the promotion, attainment, and restoration of human dignity. A Values driven organization that is highly ethical, accountable and acts with integrity and has an excellent track record both in its work, governance, and financial integrity.
Research - Policy Gap Series
We critically examine CSR through the lens of investment and investment impacts. Is it good or bad? Do the costs outweigh the benefits? Companies, governments and civil society, both locally and globally, recognize us as a key role player and opinion maker regarding CSR and sustainable development.
Voice Power and Media Advocacy
Currently communities are severely disadvantaged when it comes to mining companies. Communities often lack information and access to expert advice, and end up giving their rights away.They also lack recourse to justice when they are aggrieved. Women and children are particularly impacted.
Community Monitoring School
The Bench Marks Foundation has mobilized and trained members from over forty communities in South Africa to monitor corporations and local government. Community Monitors report on their findings using internet, social media, local radio and newsletters.
The Independent Capacity Building Fund (ICF) And The Independent Problem Solving Service
Currently communities are severely disadvantaged when it comes to mining companies. Communities often lack information and access to expert advice, and end up giving their rights away.They also lack recourse to justice when they are aggrieved.
John Capel, Executive Director of the Bench Marks Foundation, has resigned effective from 31 December 2021. He has served the organization with distinction over the last twenty years. the board and staff thank him for his services and wish him well in his future endeavors. the deputy Director Moses Cloete will serve as acting Executive Director in the interim.
Urgent : Corporations must stop externalizing their costs onto society
June 2022 Dear Freinds, in this June edition we learn of the plea of young leaders in this Youth Month, which in itself is a damnation for the mass media that excludes generally these types of voices. They have agency and are writing and producing their own materials that tell and express their aspirations for […]
Justice is what love looks in public
May 2022 Dear Friends, welcome to our May edition of the Bulletin, featuring the regular sections as we reflect on our work, and burning issues of the weeks since our last bulletin. Our campaigning, as it is revealed throughout this BULLETIN, is to organise and ensure that the communities and others we work with see […]
When the waters subside talk of land and housing
April 2022 Dear Freinds welcome to our April edition, which reaches you on 27 April 2022, designated as Freedom Day in the South African historical calendar. We hope you use the day to rest and reflect on what was won, and lost and what is worth fighting for in our country. This Bulletin features the […]
#AMI2022
In 2021, convening the AMI in the usual fashion was a challenge given the restrictions that came with the Covid-19 pandemic. For the first time in 12 years, the conference was held virtually under the theme, “Building forward together, pivoting the extractives sector for adaptation and resilience against Covid-19”.
The AMI took place at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic had resulted in the deaths of thousands of Africans, and over two million people worldwide, having ravaged communities and pushed millions into further poverty amidst exacerbating levels of socio-economic inequality to unprecedented levels.
The AMI2022 Theme: ‘A just energy transition for sustainable mining communities in a climate crisis era’.
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courtesy artist: http://pitikantuli.com/marikana-photos/
10 Years After Marikana Podcast
This podcast is a recording of a workshop convened by the Bench Marks Foundation. The aim of these workshops was to record and develop a critical understanding of the significance of Marikana to mining communities and society at large.
This workshop was organised under the theme 10 years Marikana: Where to? This hybrid event, organised in person with people gathering in Rustenburg and online, is now edited as a two-part podcast. The participants are all scholar-activists with long association with the community of Marikana and the justice campaign for the victims of the massacre of 2012.
The running order of the podcast is as follows:
Part 1:
– Chairperson / facilitator Eric Mokuoa introduces the speakers and provides commentary;
– Sonwabile Mnwana (Rhodes University),a sociologist and senior researcher focusing on land and politics of resource extraction;
– Asanda Benya (University of Cape Town), a feminist activist working on labour and gender issues in the mining sector;
– Andy Higginbottom (London based Marikana Solidarity Collective), secretary of the City of London Anti-apartheid Group (late 1980s) and still active in support of social movement in Latin America, South Africa; and
– Ngaka Mosiane Senior Researcher (Gauteng City-Region Observatory), focusing on future directions of informal housing research, theory, and methodology.
10 Years After Marikana Podcast Part 2
Part 2:
– Respondent David Ramohanoe is a social justice activist, passionate about land reform, community development and industrial relations. He is also the Chairperson of Wonderkop Land Claims Committee.
– The Questions and Answers involved questions and discussion from the floor.
The media picked on one comment made by Bishop Jo Seoka, where he called on “President Cyril Ramaphosa to resign and that he be arrested for his alleged involvement in the 2012 Marikana Massacre.” This SABC report took the sensational route – to society at large – when they reported that “President Ramaphosa failed to apologise and show remorse for what happened in Marikana. Bishop Seoka also called for the dismissal of cases against the injured and arrested mineworkers.”